la Basilique de St. Quentin - St. Quentin cathedral

[Note this building is not the seat of a bishop, so it
cannot rightly be called a cathedral. It is a basilica
that holds the relics of St Quentin.]

Building la Basilique de St. Quentin was began in 1195
and continued for 300 years. The city was besieged in
1557 by the Spanish. In 1871, St. Quentin was captured
by the Germans during the Franco-German War.

During World WarOne, Germans occupied the city on 28th August 1914. Following
this, there were many battles with Allied troops fighting
in this locality during 1914, in 1917, and twice in 1918.
One British soldier here was the war poet Wilfred
Owen. St Quentin was finally liberated on 1st October
1918.

During the German occupation, there were many attempts
to dislodge the Germans, resulting in the near total destruction
of the cathedral, leaving just the outer walls.

When St.
Quentin was relieved by French troups on 1st October 1918, chasing
the Germans so they left the city precipitately. On entering the
cathedral, the French soldiers were outraged to discover in the
walls and pillars, ninety-three holes made and filled with
explosives so the edifice could be blown up as the Germans had
done to the donjon
of Coucy in 1917. Some of the holes were 110 cm deep, 80 cm
wide and 70 cm high. A German engineer captain was found left
behind to do the diabolical chore, but he was stopped in time.

On 15th August 1917, the cathedral was set on fire and
by the next afternoon all that was left was the outer
walls. German newspapers claimed that the fires had been
started by French gunfire. However, the 15th was relatively
calm in this region with few bombardments. On the other
hand, German troops had been seen pillaging the city of
St. Quentin, including their officers being party to wholesale
removal of stolen goods, including coal, factory equipment,
wine and mattresses (for wool).

St. Quentin, with a large hole for explosives in pillar to the right

By 1918, the cathedral was almost completely destroyed,
except the exterior walls.

St. Quentin, la Basilique before
the First World War

St Quentin, la Basilique, after
14 October 1918

St Quentin, view of the west facade and surrounds, after
14 October 1918

As you can see in the photograph just above, there are tie-rods high in the springing. (Compare this with Westminster Abbey, of which the tie-rods are positioned where the pillars meet the springing.) These rods allowed tensions to be adjusted as a help in stabilising the building. They existed in both the apse and the nave. In the late 19th century, these tie-rods were removed from the nave. During the war damage, it is noted that the vaulting still held up fairly well in the nave, while it collapsed in the apse.

The damage to the cathedral was considerable: not only the vaulting
of the apse had collapsed completely, the flying
buttresses were partially destroyed, there were numerous
breaches in the walls and buttresses, while some masonry
threatening to collapse could precipitate large falls,
and the state of the bell tower was particularly worrying.

After the war, the Basilique de St. Quentin was restored.

Scaffolding on the South transept
as the Basilique de St Quentin was restored
[Note: the view appears to be of the south-west side]

The task of restoration was given to Emile Brunet, chief
architect of the Historic Monuments Service, sometimes
known as “the cathedral man” for his knowledge
of ancient building techniques. At first, German prisoners
of war cleared about 3,000 cubic metres of cut stone and
rubble. Unfortunately, not being adequately supervised,
they further damaged carvings and decorations. The most
urgent consolidations of masonry was done by specialised
workers, parts from damaged sculptures being put aside
carefully for later restoration.

In order to protect the stone of the building from the
weather until the roof was replaced, a temporary framework
of eaves was placed on the top of the remaining walls,
onto which 5,000 square metres of fibro-cement and Ruberoid
sheeting was spread.

The Basilica of Saint Quentin has a labyrinth. The labyrinth at Amiens is somewhat similar. (Much more information on this at the Amiens link.)

Saint Quentin labyrinth, drawn by Jules Gailhabaud [1810-1888],
in L'architecture
du 5me au 17me siècle et les arts qui en dépendent, Volume
2, 1858[Note: the drawing has an error, missing two bars. abelard.org has added these bars in red.
This drawing does not illustrate the actual labyrinth at Saint Quentin.
As you can see the drawing must be flipped left to right to match the actual labyrinth]

Wilfred Owens , born 8th
March 1893, Oswestry, Shropshire; died 4th November
1918 in Ors, France while attempting to lead his men
across the Sambre-Oise canal at Ors. Owens was awarded
the Military Cross posthumously, for bravery in October
1918 by seizing a German machine-gun and using it to
kill a number of Germans.

Wilfred Owens is a respected war poet, his two best
known poems being “Anthem for Doomed Youth”
and “Dulce et Decorum est”. He was encouraged
by Seigfred Sassoon, another war poet and author, to
publish his only book of poetry, Poems by Wilfred
Owen.

Seigfred Sassoon’s Memoirs of an Infantry
Officer describes his service on the Western
Front and his disillusionment with war. Sassoon also
wrote war poems.